Teja.
Global Moderator
I think the wrestlers would be the worst affected. I’m following the writers strike right now and a lot of them lament how streaming companies have killed the tv sitcom and weekly procedural/drama landscape which saw every season have 20-25 episodes and the writers would get residuals from every tv run financed by commercials. Writers had to be skilled in areas like quick output of programming and writing suspense beats around commercials. The writers would be hired through the entire writing as well as shooting process to work with the actors so it was a lucrative full time job which could go on for as long as the show went on for which was typically years.
They have been replaced by prestige shows on streaming platforms where there are 8-10 episodes all at once of a show with no commercials and the writers are only involved in a few weeks of writing and then ****ed off to find another gig. As the show doesn’t have a steady flow of money from commercials, residuals are next to nothing. They might get called in by the showrunner 2 years later but that is far from guaranteed.
I think this is very similar to pro wrestlers. As a consumer, I think the second model is better for quality control but I can understand why a non-main event worker would prefer the job security and pay of working throughout the year with multi-year contracts guaranteeing fixed pay with PPV bonuses etc instead of having to scramble for a job after shooting a 12 episode season.
